Roger Federer Brings His Star Power Back to the Davis Cup

PARIS — The Davis Cup once was the defining competition in men’s tennis, and every so often, there is a reminder of what it still could mean in a game where individual prizes have long overshadowed the collective ones.

So it went Wednesday when word leaked and twittered out that Roger Federer had changed his mind and schedule, and would be joining Stan Wawrinka for Switzerland’s first-round tie in Serbia.

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal might not be playing Davis Cup matches this weekend, but Federer is back. Before long Federer and Wawrinka were posing for a group selfie with the Swiss captain, Severin Lüthi, looking understandably delighted as he stood between them.

Lüthi, a discreet man, has quietly become a force in the sport. With the departure of Paul Annacone, he is again Federer’s principal coach as a new recruit, Stefan Edberg, plays the role of star consultant.

Lüthi also is a fixture in Wawrinka’s camp, providing support, while Magnus Norman, now established as one of the best coaches in tennis, does the heavy lifting. They were all in Melbourne last week as Federer lost to Nadal in the semifinals and Wawrinka made the unexpected leap from gallant Grand Slam loser to Australian Open champion.

Switzerland has no other men in the top 175, but it does have undeniable star power at the top. The last time a nation played the Davis Cup with two Grand Slam singles champions was in 2005, when Nadal and Juan Carlos Ferrero played for Spain.

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Andy Murray, left, and Britain will face the United States at Petco Park in San Diego on Friday.CreditClive Brunskill/Getty Images

“It’s Stan’s week, that’s clear,” Federer told Swiss journalists Thursday. “And I hope to be able to support him a bit here because I know what he’s going through.”

The twist is that Wawrinka, not the 32-year-old Federer, is now No. 1 in Switzerland, even if Federer is playing in the No. 1 slot because Davis Cup following the rankings from the time of team nominations earlier this month. But there is justice in that. Wawrinka, now 28, has been a much more committed Davis Cup player in his prime than Federer was in his, and Wawrinka did not even crack after winning and partying in a distant time zone in Australia.

“Maybe you don’t know, but Davis Cup, it’s really important for me,” Wawrinka explained in Melbourne late Sunday night after his victory. “I’m really proud. It’s a big honor to play for my country. So for sure I’m still thinking to go there. I don’t know how I’m going to get there exactly, if I’m still going to be alive after tonight, but I’m going.”

Federer was once addicted to the Cup, too, back in his scruffier ponytail days. It was the setting for some of his most dramatic early victories. But the hunt for major individual prizes has long taken precedence, and he has rarely played anything but the relegation round in September in recent years, skipping the opening rounds, where the Cup is won or lost.

The result is that Switzerland has never won, a true hole in Federer’s curriculum vitae when you consider that the other men on the usual short list of all-time greats have done so: Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras and Federer’s best measuring stick, Nadal, who has been part of four Spanish victories.

The Davis Cup does not matter as it did or as it should considering its history and the net-rattling energy it can generate in the right venue with the right actors and story line. Top players keep critiquing the format. Other team events keep being plotted or proposed, but for Federer to make this move now, when his back is apparently leaving him in peace and he still has big individual plans for the season, shows that, deep down, it still matters plenty to him.

His personal connection to Lüthi and his teammates surely play a role, but he also must sniff a big opportunity with Wawrinka at a new level and his own biological clock ticking.

Federer and Wawrinka, who won the Olympic gold medal in doubles together in Beijing in 2008, have chased the Cup together before without success. In 2012, they were beaten at home in the first round by John Isner, Mardy Fish and the Americans. It was a surprising setback in which Federer was not at his most elegant, remarking on Wawrinka’s inability to win the opening match and the effectiveness of Wawrinka’s serving in their doubles defeat.

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The Swiss Davis Cup coach Severin Lüthi, left, and Roger Federer were in Novi Sad, Serbia, on Thursday at the official draw for the first-round match.CreditReuters

The fallout caused both men some angst, and Federer reached out to Wawrinka to clarify the comments, which he felt had been misinterpreted. But Federer and Wawrinka remain much closer than most tennis stars, and they are together again. The pity is that Djokovic, who has come to define Serbian tennis and won the Cup in 2010, will not be in the lineup to greet them and stir up trouble and suspense.

He says that he needs rest, and if all goes according to ranking and reputation, Federer and Wawrinka should face little resistance on an indoor hard court against a Serbian team that is also missing its second fiddles, with Janko Tipsarevic still injured and Viktor Troicki still suspended after missing a blood test last year.

In the opening match Friday, Federer will instead face Ilija Bozoljac, who has shown flashes of brilliance in Davis Cup doubles but is ranked 268th in singles.

This sort of situation has been perhaps the Cup’s biggest problem in this grand tennis era. The superstars have all played at various times but not enough to run into each other often and give the Cup a true taste of their robust rivalries.

Federer and Nadal have played 33 times but never in the Cup. Nadal and Djokovic have played 39 times, but their only match in the Cup was in the first round in 2009 before Djokovic hit full flight. Federer and Djokovic have played 31 times, but their only Cup match was in 2006.

The trend also encompasses Andy Murray, whose British team has spent much of his career in the lower divisions. He, too, has not played any of his Big Four rivals in the Cup except for a doubles match against Federer in 2005.

But Britain is back in the 16-team World Group this year, and Murray, like Federer, is in the lineup and expected to play Friday. The tie against the United States is in San Diego, on an outdoor clay court installed quite ingeniously in the outfield of Petco Park, the home of major league baseball’s San Diego Padres.

The British-American rivalry started the Davis Cup in 1900. This will be their first meeting since 1999, and it looks to be the best matchup of the opening round even if Americans will have other priorities Sunday, when the Super Bowl is played.

But the good news for the Cup and those who want it to remain relevant is that Federer has shuffled his priorities, and an earnest, season-long run at the trophy would be a tennis story with legs, one that might even bring the game’s premier team event back to a wider audience.